


Tales from Kanto

by HeraldAlberich



Series: Pokémon Shift [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:47:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24549379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeraldAlberich/pseuds/HeraldAlberich
Summary: When a pair of twin sisters and a boy from Johto go on a journey together, things take a rather unexpected turn in an abandoned laboratory. And when they discover a criminal conspiracy to seize control of the region, they'll need every bit of help they can get in order to stop it.
Series: Pokémon Shift [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1774297





	1. Everything Changes

The sounds of Pidgey outside her window woke Rosa up. She sat bolt upright in bed, and checked the calendar.  
"YES!! IT'S FINALLY HERE!"  
There was a thump as her sister fell out of bed, awakened by her shout. Emily groaned and got back up, rubbing her head. "Rosa, did you have to shout so loud?"  
Rosa leapt out of bed. She practically ran over to Emily and grabbed her hands, pumping them enthusiastically. "Emily, today's the day! We're finally going to get our first Pokémon! And go on an adventure!" She jumped up and down.  
Emily's eyes grew wide as she woke up a bit more. "Oh my gosh, you're right! Oh, we gotta get ready, we gotta start packing, I gotta get dressed…" She trailed off and went over to her dresser to start rummaging through it.  
Rosa dressed at lightspeed and ran downstairs. As she passed the living room, she heard voices and stopped to listen.  
"--I just don't like it." That was her dad. Probably complaining again.  
"I know you don't, dear. But we can't keep doing this. It's not fair to either of them." That was her mom. What were they talking about? She listened closer.  
Her dad sighed. "I just… it's dangerous out there. What if they get hurt? Or something else happens? I… I don't want them going. Not this year."  
Rosa's heart sank. _No. Not again._ It sounded like their dad was going to keep them here a whole 'nother year. Like he'd done the last two times. Rosa didn't think she could wait another year; the last one had been nearly unbearable.  
Her mother's voice took on a harder tone, and she focused her attention back on the conversation. "Ralston Henry Anderson, you promised. Are you going to break a promise to your own daughters?"  
"I… well, n-no…"  
"Good. They'll be fine, Ral. Rosa is very capable and Emily is incredibly smart. Between the two of them, they'll have no trouble at all. And besides, I've got a backup plan."  
"You do?"  
_She does?_  
"Yes. I'll tell you later; unless you missed it, Rosa at least is awake. I'm pretty certain they heard that shout in Viridian City." Rosa heard her mother's footsteps heading her way, and she scrambled out of the hall and into the kitchen. She just managed to sit at the table before her mom walked in. She raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, and got to fixing breakfast.  
Emily came down the stairs, her backpack filled to bursting. "I think I've got everything!"  
Her mom gave her a glance. "You forgot the kitchen sink, dear," she teased gently. Emily flushed and joined Rosa at the table.  
Breakfast was soon ready, and Rosa eagerly dug into the delicious pancakes topped with Pecha berry slices.  
"So, Rosa, do you know which Pokémon you're going to pick?"  
Rosa swallowed her mouthful before answering. "Uh… well, I'm thinking of maybe Charmander? Or Bulbasaur. They both look pretty cool."  
"What about you, Emily?"  
"I want Squirtle! It looks so cute!"  
Rosa giggled. Of course Emily would pick hers because it was cute. Though, Rosa wasn't one to talk; she was hoping for Bulbasaur. It was absolutely adorable…  
They soon finished with breakfast, and Rosa packed her own bag. She made sure her spare glasses were in the side pocket; forgetting those would be a disaster. Everything else looked good, so she slung the bag over her shoulder. "I'm ready!"  
Emily stepped right next to her. "Me too!"  
Their mom looked them over. "Yes, I think you are." She wrapped them both in an enormous hug, which they returned. She pulled back and smiled. "I'm so proud of you both."  
"Awww. Thanks, Mom."  
Their father stuck his head in. "Kendra, are they ready?"  
"Yes, Ralston." She patted the girls on their shoulders. "Now get going, you two! Before there's no Pokémon left!"  
They were off like a shot. Rosa turned back and waved at her father as she ran out the door. She almost couldn't believe it was finally happening; her first Pokémon, and the start of her adventure! She ran down the road towards Professor Oak's laboratory, passing Emily.  
_I'm just glad Mom could convince Dad to let us go this time. Though, I wonder what that "backup plan" is…_  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
"Welcome!"  
Rosa shook Professor Oak's hand. The Professor himself looked like he always did; messy lab coat, brown slacks and loafers. You'd be hard-pressed to tell he was a prominent Pokémon researcher.  
"You must be here for your first Pokémon! Right this way!" He led the two into the laboratory proper. It was almost as messy as his appearance, with papers all over the place. There were even a few stains on some of them.  
"Now, er… what were your names again?"  
Rosa sighed. "Rosa and Emily, professor. You can stop with that joke, it's getting old."  
Oak laughed. "Sorry, can't help it. It's a habit by this point." He brought them to a table, where two Pokéballs rested.  
"Two?" Rosa asked. "Aren't there supposed to be three?"  
"Yes, well…" Oak rubbed the back of his head. "Someone came here first and chose the Charmander. My apologies."  
Rosa was a little disappointed, but also relieved. Now she didn't have to choose between the two. "I'll take Bulbasaur, then."  
"And I'll take Squirtle!"  
"Well, alright then!" Oak handed one of the Pokéballs to each of them. A shiver of anticipation ran up Rosa's spine. Here it was, in her hands; her very own Pokémon. She carefully shifted her grip on the ball, and pushed the button release.  
A bright flash of light came out of the ball and coalesced onto the floor. It formed into a very distinctive shape, one she knew from hours and hours of looking at pictures. The light faded, and the Pokémon looked up at her.  
“Saur? Bulbasaur?”  
Rosa’s heart beat faster as she admired the little creature. They were beautiful, with their teal skin and cute red eyes. She especially loved the little bulb on their back, and the spots of green all over their body. She kneeled down and looked them in the eyes. “Hello.”  
The Bulbasaur stared at her for a moment, then smiled and closed their eyes. “Saur!”  
She patted their head, her heart aflutter. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Emily doing the same with her Squirtle.  
“Well, they certainly seem to like you! Now, did you have a name in mind for them?”  
Rosa looked up. “Name?”  
“Yes, a name. Some people give their Pokémon nicknames, to express their individuality, or distinguish theirs from others.”  
_A name…_ She hadn’t thought of that, but now that she knew, it felt wrong not to give Bulbasaur a name. She wracked her brain trying to think. What fit? She discarded several different possibilities before finally, _finally_ , something came to her.  
“I’ll call you… Vinestorm.”  
“Saur!” Vinestorm looked happy with their new name and nuzzled Rosa. She happily gave them pets, scratching behind their ears.  
“And mine will be… Bubbles!” Emily held up her Squirtle, who looked very proud at that name. Rosa giggled a little.  
“Wonderful! Now, there’s a few things more before you head out.” Professor Oak pulled out two red devices from his pockets and handed them to the pair. “These are your Pokédexes. They’ll give you any information about Pokémon you might encounter on your journey. So please be extra careful, and don’t do anything risky with them.”  
They took the ‘dexes and put them in their own pockets.  
“And secondly, there’s someone here who would like to speak with you.” Oak looked over their shoulders. “Ah, there he is!”  
Rosa turned to see an older boy, probably about 13, standing there. A pair of goggles was hung around his neck, dangling in front of his blue-and-black jacket. His dark blonde hair was slightly messy. He pushed his hair back unconsciously. “Hey there.”  
“Uh… hi?” Rosa vaguely knew this kid; he lived a few houses down. But she’d never really talked with him before. What did he want to talk to them about?  
An orange, scaly head poked out from behind the boy’s. “Char?”  
“Oh!” Emily said. “You’re the one with the Charmander!”  
“Yep. This is Ashes.” The boy scratched the Pokémon’s head, much to their delight. “And I’m Darren.” He held out his hand.  
Rosa took it. “Rosa. And this is Emily.”  
“Nice to meet you. I was wanting to know, were you guys looking for a traveling buddy? I’m headed out on my adventure too, and it’s no fun traveling alone.”  
“Well, I, uh…” Rosa certainly hadn’t been expecting _that._  
“Sure!” Emily exclaimed.  
_Guess that decides it._ “Yeah, I guess so.”  
Darren smiled. “Awesome. Should we get started then?”  
Rosa nodded. There was something nagging at her, but for the moment, she couldn’t think of what it was. She followed Darren outside, making sure Vinestorm was trailing behind her. Together, the group headed out the gates of Pallet Town and onto Route 1.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Darren reached further into the bush. “Almost… almost…”  
His hand touched something soft. “Got it!” He grabbed hold of it and pulled it out.  
Rosa looked over at him. “What are you doing?”  
He held up his prize, a Pecha berry. “Berry hunting!”  
“Ok, why?”  
Darren put the berry in a side pouch. “Well, berries make pretty good snacks in a pinch, for one, but mostly these are for meals. Pechas are awesome at giving a little sweetness to a dish.” He reached back into the bush. “There should be one or two more here…”  
"You know how to cook?"  
"Yep. My dad taught me." He found another berry and put it away. He pulled out of the bush and brushed himself off. "Speaking of, who's ready for lunch?"  
"Ooh, I am!" Emily hurried over.  
Darren started setting up a campfire, using twigs and leaves he'd picked up from the route. He pulled a pot out of his pack along with a cooking stand and hung them over the tinder. "Ashes? Can you give me a little help?"  
The Charmander nodded and stuck his flaming tail in the pile. It quickly caught fire, burning away merrily.  
Darren poured some water out of his bottle into the pot, along with a few vegetables. Soon, a savory smell reached the others' nostrils.  
"Hey, do you guys like spicy things?" Darren asked.  
"A little bit," Rosa replied. Emily nodded in agreement.  
"Cool." He took out a small jar from his pack and dumped something into his hand. It looked like a small spiky dried berry. Fairly innocent-looking, but Darren knew exactly the kind of punch this thing packed. He broke off one of the spikes and crumbled a bit into the stew.  
Lunch was soon served, and Darren dug in eagerly. It wasn't as spicy as he usually liked it, but he had to think of everyone else now, not just him.  
He looked over at the other two. They were definitely related; their black hair and green eyes would’ve given that away even if their facial features weren’t so similar. Rosa wore a pair of glasses, pretty big ones, and a purple t-shirt over a pair of orange cargo shorts. Emily, meanwhile, had a lavender scarf around her neck. Her shirt was blue, and she wore a maroon skirt with pockets. She was busy eating her meal, but Rosa kept glancing over at him every so often.  
He finished his bowl, and as he was going for seconds, he saw her looking at him again. He sighed. “Is there a reason you keep staring at me?”  
She jumped a little. “Huh? I’m not… no!”  
“Yes, you are. Like, at least five times now.”  
Her face grew red. “I… it’s not like that!”  
He sat back and blew on his soup to cool it. “Then what is it like?”  
She gave him an irritated glare. “It’s just really convenient that you _happened_ to hang around long enough to meet up with us. And then you _happened_ to decide that you wanna travel with us? I’m not buying it.” She took a deep breath. “Our Mom asked you to come along with us, didn’t she?”  
Emily looked over, surprised. “What? Rosa, why would you think that?”  
“I heard Mom talking to Dad about having a ‘backup plan’. Dad didn’t want to let us go, but Mom made him. And now I’m thinking this ‘plan’ is Darren.” She folded her arms over her chest and waited for his answer.  
He started laughing. “I knew you’d figure it out sooner or later. Yeah, your mom asked me to keep an eye on you both.”  
Rosa started fuming. “I can’t believe it! After all that talk to Dad about how capable we were, and she gets someone to babysit us!”  
“Hey now, I’m not a babysitter.”  
“Oh, you’re not? Then why did you come with us, huh? You just said she asked you to keep an eye on us!”  
He put his bowl down. “She did, yeah, but that’s not why I agreed.”  
“Alright then. Why _did_ you agree?”  
He hesitated for a minute. “Well, uh… like I said, an adventure’s no fun alone.”  
She shook her head. “Nice try. Tell me the truth. Or we’re not going anywhere else with you.” She sat down and crossed her legs.  
Emily looked helplessly back and forth for a minute before moving over to sit by her sister. Their Pokémon sat next to them as well.  
Darren sighed again. “Alright. The first thing you gotta know is that I’m not from here. I’m from Johto.”  
“Really? Why’d you come here?”  
“Not exactly by choice. My grandpa died recently, and my grandma got really upset. She told my dad she needed someone to be with her, so she wouldn’t be alone. And he couldn’t exactly go, so… I got chosen instead.”  
“Oh.” Rosa lost her hostile expression.  
“And the worst part is, I couldn’t bring my partner Pokémon along, because my grandma is deathly afraid of Fire-types.” He felt a pang in his chest as he thought about it.  
"Oh my gosh, that's terrible!" Emily exclaimed. Rosa looked down at Vinestorm, and her face grew pensive.  
"Anyway, when your mom asked me to accompany you two, I jumped at the chance. She's going to go over to my grandma's house every day, make sure she's not alone. And I get to leave the house, _finally_. We both win."  
Silence hung in the air for a moment. Then Rosa sighed. "Yeah, that would suck. Sorry for snapping, it's just… we've been kept at home for two years past when we should've gone out on our adventure. We finally got to go this year, and then you showed up, and well…"  
"You thought I was going to be a babysitter."  
"Yeah."  
"I'm not. I don't plan on babysitting anyone. I just want to get away from that house and have a good time." He held out his hand. "Truce?"  
Rosa took it. "Truce."  
"Great. Now let's finish this soup before it gets cold. Don't wanna waste good food."  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
“You’ve gotta be kidding me!”  
Rosa stood in front of the Viridian City gym, shooting the doors a glare. This was supposed to be the first stop on her Gym Challenge, the place where she’d get her first badge.  
And yet, for some _stupid_ reason, it was closed.  
Darren scratched his head. “That’s weird. I never heard of a gym closing before…”  
“Me either. What the heck happened?”  
A voice piped up from the side of the building. “Leader’s not there. Gone off somewhere, they say.”  
Rosa turned to see an old man staring at the Gym just like them. “What do you mean ‘gone off?’”  
The old man shrugged. “Don’t know. Just what I heard.”  
Rosa’s arms slumped to her side. “Well, that’s just great! Now what are we going to do?”  
Emily pulled a map out of her pack. “The next town is Pewter City. They have a Gym there too. We can always come back later; maybe the Leader will be there then?”  
“I guess we have to.” Rosa readjusted her bag on her shoulder and picked up Vinestorm. “Well, there’s nothing else here for us, then. Might as well get going.” She started walking towards the edge of town, Darren and Emily following her.  
They quickly found the path to Route 2 and headed down it. Rosa was still thinking.  
“Will they let us come back and challenge the Gym? I mean, aren’t we doing this out of order?”  
Darren waved a hand dismissively. “We’ll be fine. There’s not really a specific order; I mean, you got kids starting in other towns, don’t you? You just happened to come from Pallet Town, so Viridian’s your first stop.”  
“You seem to know a lot about this.”  
“Well, yeah. I did the Johto Gym challenge, after all.”  
Rosa stopped. “Wait, what?”  
Darren pulled a small case out of his pocket and opened it up. Eight metallic badges gleamed in the sunlight.  
“Whoaaaa... You really got all those?”  
“Yeah. It wasn’t easy, either. That last badge in particular took me a buttload of tries to get. But it was a lot of fun.” He closed the badge case and slipped it back into his pocket.  
“Are you gonna try the Kanto Challenge too?”  
“Nah. I’m just happy to be traveling around again after being cooped up for so long. Especially now that I got some good friends along for the ride.” He scratched Ashes’s head again.  
Rosa blushed a little. “You… you think we’re good friends?”  
“Yeah, of course! Why wouldn’t I?”  
She blushed even more. “I, uh…”  
“Thanks, Darren! You’re a good friend too!” Emily piped up.  
He smiled. “Thanks, guys.”  
They pressed onward, heading down Route 2. In the distance, they could see a huge group of trees.  
“That must be Viridian Forest,” Rosa said, squinting to try and get a better look.  
Suddenly, Vinestorm started looking around nervously. Rosa looked down at her. “Huh? What’s wrong?”  
_CREEEAAAAAAAKKKK_  
She turned her head towards the source of the noise, and saw a massive tree falling straight towards them. She froze, panicking in the moment. As the tree came closer and closer, she felt something wrap around her waist and pull her out of the way. The tree hit the ground with a mighty _THUD_ , just a few feet from where she’d been standing.  
She looked back to see Vinestorm retracting her vines back into her bulb. She glanced around, and saw that the others were out of danger, their own Pokémon having saved them.  
“Jeez, that was close!” Darren got to his feet and went over to the tree. “We almost got crushed.”  
“Yeah… we didn’t though. Thanks to our Pokémon.” Rosa hugged Vinestorm tightly.  
Darren looked the tree over. “Well, the route is blocked. Unless one of you brought a power saw or a pack of Scyther, we’ll have to find another way around.”  
Emily held out a hand to Rosa, who took it gratefully. “Wonder how it fell down?”  
“Don’t know. Maybe when we get to the other side, we’ll find out. Come on; might as well get started.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Emily looked at the base of the giant tree. “This… looks like it was cut.”  
“Are you sure?” Darren asked, examining it himself.  
“As sure as I can be. The tree isn’t rotted, and there’s no scorch marks or anything. It looks like someone took an axe to it.”  
“But why would someone do that? That could kill somebody!” Rosa sounded furious.  
“I don’t know! I’m just telling you what it looks like! Maybe they were cutting it for firewood, and it started falling the wrong way?” She looked around for any sign of someone before something caught her eye. “Hey, what’s that over there?” She pointed towards it.  
They followed her finger. “It looks like some kind of building,” Darren said.  
“Should we go check it out? Maybe the guy who cut down the tree is in there?”  
Darren shrugged. “Might as well. We can head back to the road later. Rosa?”  
“Yeah, let’s go check it out. I wanna give this guy a piece of my mind.”  
They walked through the trees towards the building. As they got closer, they could see it was a small rectangular building, its white paint faded and peeling. The windows were dusty, and some were broken. The front door hung open, leaning on only one hinge.  
“Man, this place has seen better days.” Darren said  
Ashes held his tail between his hands. “Char…”  
“Come on, let’s go in. The quicker we do, the quicker we can get back out.” Rosa went through the door, Vinestorm trailing behind her.  
Emily hesitated a moment. This place didn’t feel right, for some reason. It was obviously abandoned, but why? Did something happen here? She didn’t know, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to find out. She looked over at Darren, who shrugged and went in after Rosa. That made up her mind. “Come on, Bubbles,” she said, and followed them in.  
Ashes’s tail provided a small amount of light as they walked inside. It looked kind of like Professor Oak’s laboratory, if his lab was twice as big and in shambles. Dusty computers lined the walls, and there was paper everywhere. In the center stood two large cylindrical chambers, connected to each other by wires and tubes. Monitors and keypads were attached to the chambers, but they were dark as the rest of the room.  
“What is this place?” Emily asked.  
“Some kind of research center, I’d say. Though it looks _really old_. Those computers are practically retro.”  
“Hey guys!” Rosa’s voice came from another room. “Come check this out!”  
“You go on ahead,” Darren told Emily. “I wanna look around a bit more.”  
She nodded and went towards the sound of Rosa’s voice. She found her sister in some kind of archive room. There were filing cabinets along the walls, and a huge computer monitor on one side.  
Rosa was examining some kind of switch on the far wall. “I think this is the power switch.”  
“Should we flip it? I mean, it’s probably not going to work…”  
“Let’s try it!” She grabbed the switch and tried pulling it down.  
It didn’t budge.  
She tried again, pulling with all her might. It still refused to move. She looked over at Vinestorm, and the Bulbasaur stretched out her vines. They pulled together, and finally the switch swung down with a horrible screeching sound.  
Lights flickered to life in the ceiling, and the computer blinked on. Emily went over to the monitor and noticed several files. “‘TP Res. Log 1’? What does that mean?”  
“I don’t know. Click it and find out.”  
She clicked the file and a black box appeared on the screen. The black soon faded to show a young woman in a lab coat, looking at the two of them.  
Emily jumped back a little.  
“Teleportation Project, codename Abra, Research Log One. We have the base equipment set up, and things are proceeding smoothly. Our sponsor, who’s requested anonymity, has provided us with everything we need for the project, and then some. I’m very confident that we’ll be able to construct a working prototype within the next few weeks!”  
"Huh. They were working on teleportation stuff."  
"Why'd they stop? I mean, that would be pretty useful, right? Just zip across to another region anytime you want, no boats or anything?"  
"No clue," Emily said. "Maybe the other logs will tell us?" She clicked on the second log, but an error message popped up. "Unable to read file. Data may be corrupted." She tried a few more, but it wasn't until she got to the sixth one that it finally worked.  
"Research Log Six. We're finally ready to test the prototype with a living subject. All models predict a resounding success, based on the earlier experiments. Once this is done, we can work on making it more streamlined and cheaper to produce. This is going to revolutionize everything--"  
"Ditto?"  
The camera suddenly filled with a purple blob, and small black eyes peered into the lens. They heard the researcher sigh, and the blob retreated until they could see the woman again, holding the Pokémon in her hands.  
"Sorry about that. Subject One gets very curious about these things. Anyway, we're looking forward to a successful test tomorrow!"  
The log ended, and Emily saw there was one left. She glanced over at Rosa. "Should we…?"  
"Yeah. I wanna know what happened."  
Emily opened up the log, and right away, knew something had gone wrong. The researcher's eyes were red and puffy, and there were tear stains on her cheeks. She sniffed before speaking.  
"Research Log Seven… Failure. Complete and utter failure. The test seemed to go perfectly at first; Subject One successfully dematerialized and the prototype was operating at full capacity. But when we tried rematerializing--" A small sob escaped her throat, "--nothing. No matter what, Subject One never reappeared. They're gone, either scattered into the air or stuck inside the machine, I don't know which. And right now, I don't particularly care. This project is over; I'm shutting everything down as of today. Our sponsor can complain all they want, but I'm not sending anyone else through that thing. Head Researcher Amy Garrett signing off… for good."  
The log ended, the screen going dark.  
“Oh my gosh…”  
Emily looked over at Rosa. “Those things we saw in the other room… do you think?”  
Rosa nodded. “We gotta warn Darren.”  
A loud humming sound filled the air as the lights flickered. Without hesitation, they ran through the doors and into the other room, hoping they weren’t too late…  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Darren was examining the cylinders when the lights came on.  
“Oh. Guess they found the power or something.” Now that he could see, he noticed that the cylinders were far more high-tech than the rest of the room. Maybe whoever made this had spent all the money on these, and had to make due with bricks for computers.  
A blinking light on the panel of the nearest cylinder caught his eye. He moved closer, and saw that it was a button. Curious, he pushed it, and a section of the cylinder slid open. The inside was far cleaner than the outside; a pristine white wall.  
He reached over to close the cylinder again when he felt hands on his back. They pushed him into the cylinder and as he hit the back wall, the door closed behind him.  
“Hey! What the heck?!” He pounded on the section of wall that held the door. “Let me out!”  
He heard a voice on the other side and tried to listen, but the wall was too thick. He only caught snippets. “.....doesn’t make sense…… don’t say anything…”  
“Come on! Whoever’s there, just let me out!”  
There was no response, but he heard some beeping, and then a loud humming noise. The cylinder began shaking, and the light inside started to grow brighter and brighter. He pounded harder on the wall, trying desperately to get it open.  
The light grew painfully bright and he had to close his eyes. The hairs on his arms and head started rising as the air filled with electricity. It felt like the hairs were pulling right out of his skin, and trying to take the rest of him with them.  
He didn’t think it was possible for the light to grow brighter, but it did, shining through his eyelids until all he saw was white. He felt his feet lift off the floor as the humming got even louder.  
Without warning, the humming stopped, leaving him floating around in white emptiness for a moment.  
Then he fell, slamming into something hard.  
And everything went black.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
“Come on, how do you open this thing?!”  
Rosa looked helplessly at the console attached to the teleporter. The keys were faded and she couldn’t tell which one did what. She didn’t want to make things worse…  
She felt a tugging on her pants and looked down to see Ashes. “Char, char!”  
“What? What’s up?”  
Ashes pointed over to the other cylinder where a light was blinking on the console. Rosa went over to it and examined the keypad. It was faded like the other one, but one of the keys was lit up. She looked back at Ashes and pointed to the key questioningly. The Pokémon nodded.  
She jabbed the button with her finger and the cylinder slid open with a soft hiss. She and Emily both gasped as they saw Darren lying on the floor of the cylinder. He seemed to be unconscious, and on top of him was a purple blob. The blob looked up at them and they could see a small face on them.  
“Ditto?”  
“Is that…?”  
“I think so. It’s that Pokémon, the one that never reappeared.” She picked them up gently and placed them down outside the teleporter. “Help me with him.”  
Together, they pulled Darren out and carried him between them towards the exit. Ashes followed nervously, his tail held in his hands again.  
They left the building and lay Darren against a tree. As Rosa looked him over, she noticed something off.  
“Hey, am I imagining things, or does his hair have a white streak?”  
Emily looked as well. “I see it too. That wasn’t there before, right?”  
Rosa shook her head. She brushed his hair out of his face, and saw something else. A small scar ran across his cheek, underneath his eye. It looked kind of old, which didn’t make any sense, considering it hadn’t been there until a few minutes ago.  
“What the heck happened in there?” Rosa asked.  
Darren stirred a little, and opened his eyes. “Ughhhhh…”  
“Darren! Are you alright?”  
He sat up, wincing all the way. “I think so. Though I feel really achy… what happened?”  
“You got caught in the teleporter thingy,” Emily answered. “Thank goodness you made it out. According to the video logs in this place, the last test subject wasn’t so lucky. At least until now…”  
Darren held his head and closed his eyes again. “I don’t _feel_ lucky right now. My head is killing me.”  
Their Pokémon gathered around him. Ashes especially looked very worried and wrapped his tiny arms around Darren’s waist. He absently scratched the Charmander’s head. “Ok, I think the headache’s going away a little…”  
He tried getting to his feet, but started wobbling and quickly sat back down. “Alright, no standing for now.”  
Vinestorm hopped up into his lap. “Saur?”  
He glanced down at the Bulbasaur, and suddenly his body went rigid.  
“Darren?!”  
He didn’t answer. His eyes were still locked onto Vinestorm, and as she watched, his irises turned a bright red color, the same as the Pokémon’s.  
_What the…_  
He doubled over, pushing Vinestorm off, and dropped to all fours. A blue-green color spread over his skin, green blotches appearing at random. As the color washed over him, his clothes seemed to melt into his skin, disappearing from view and leaving only his goggles dangling from his neck. His body shrank down and a large green bulb sprouted from his back. Within a few more seconds, Darren was gone, and in his place was a Bulbasaur, lying flat on the grass, panting heavily.  
Rosa and Emily were stunned. Whatever they were expecting, it hadn’t been _this_.  
The Pokémon were equally shocked. Ashes nervously went up to him and poked him in the side. “Char?”  
He groaned. “Owwwwww…”  
_That was Darren’s voice…_ She looked closer, and saw the scar was still there, underneath his eye. Rosa swallowed. “Darren? Is that you?”  
“Yeah… that’s me. Owwwww… what happened? It felt like I got Comet Punched by an angry Kangaskhan…”  
“Um, well…” She looked over at Emily who shrugged helplessly. “Ahh… you kinda, uh, sorta maybe turned into a Bulbasaur?”  
He opened his eyes and looked up at her with irritation. “Ha, ha. Very funny. Where did you pull that joke out of?”  
“I’m being serious, Darren. Look at yourself.”  
He rolled his eyes and looked down at his front feet. His eyes went wide and he jumped to his feet, looking at himself as much as he could. “What the heck?! How… why…?”  
“I don’t know, I’m just as confused as you are!”  
Ashes poked him again. “Char?”  
Darren turned to face him, and the Charmander hugged him tightly, almost bowling him over. “Ah, jeez, buddy! I’m ok, I’m ok…”  
“Do… do you think it had something to do with the teleporter?” Emily asked.  
“What else could it be? Unless you’ve done this before, Darren.”  
“No, I have not. This is definitely new.” He looked himself over again. “I just hope this isn’t permanent or anything…”  
“Me too. It would be really weird. And I’m not sure you could cook like that.”  
He glared at Rosa. “Well, I’m glad my cooking is your top priority.”  
Emily patted him on the head. “She’s just messing around, Darren. We’ll figure this out, okay?”  
He mumbled something under his breath that Rosa didn’t quite catch. Then he shook himself and stood up fully. “Alright, let’s get outta this place. I don’t want to hang around here anymore, it’s too weird.” He tried to stand on his hind legs, but fell back down immediately.  
“I don’t think you can really stand up…”  
“No, really? I never would’ve guessed.” He got back up and started walking on all fours. “Just something I gotta get used to, I guess.”  
Rosa and Emily stood up as well, and followed him back around the giant fallen tree, and back onto the route.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Kasey Martin, Team Rocket Grunt, stared through her binoculars at the group camped by the side of the road. They looked like a normal group of kids, out on their Pokémon journey, but she knew there was something different about them. Especially one of the Pokémon…  
A crashing sound behind her alerted her to the presence of her partner and she groaned. She turned to see him stumbling out of the trees, shaking something off his foot. “Morgan, I swear, could you be any louder? I don’t think they heard us in Cerulean.”  
He flushed. “Sorry, uh…”  
She rolled her eyes. “Kasey. Like I told you earlier. And earlier still. And--”  
“Alright, alright, I get it, jeez!” He moved over towards her, and she noticed something on his face.  
“What happened?”  
He touched the bandage on his cheek. “Just some stupid bug Pokémon. No biggie.” He crouched down and peered over to where she was looking. “So, what’s the prize?”  
She pointed. “Those kids.”  
“Really? We’re going after kids now? Are we that desperate for new recruits?”  
She punched him in the arm. “We’re after the Pokémon, genius. There’s one in particular…”  
“What, the Charmander? Those aren’t exactly rare. Neither are the others.”  
“No, the Bulbasaur. The one with the goggles. This is gonna sound weird, but… I think it can talk.”  
He scoffed. “Oh come on, really? You’re seeing things.”  
She punched him again and shoved the binoculars at him. “Fine then, if you’re so smart, _you_ look and tell me what you see.”  
He looked through the binoculars. “Ok, it’s just a Bulbasaur. It’s making Bulbasaur noises… wait…” He rubbed his eyes and looked again. “That’s… but…”  
“Well?”  
He avoided her gaze. “Fine, yeah, it looks like it’s talking.”  
“Hah! Knew it!”  
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” He handed the binoculars back. “So what do you want to do?”  
“Capture them, duh. A talking Bulbasaur? That’ll fetch a pretty penny, and make the Boss real happy.”  
Morgan looked a little nervous for some reason. “Do you think we can? I mean, it’s not exactly alone.”  
“It’s a couple of kids. They probably haven’t even had any battles yet. Besides, that’s what our own Pokémon are for, yeah?”  
“I guess so. Alright, then. Let’s get this done.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
“How do I make the vines come out?”  
Rosa glanced over at Darren. “Why are you asking me? I’m not a Bulbasaur.”  
“Well, I gotta ask someone. As long as I’m like this, I might as well learn to do Bulbasaur things.” He turned back to the rock in front of him and tried concentrating again. “Come on… Vine Whip!”  
Nothing happened.  
“I’m pretty sure you don’t shout out the move like some kind of anime character.”  
“That’s not very helpful,” he sighed.  
Vinestorm walked over to him. “Saur, Bulbasaur.”  
“Hey, Vinestorm. I don’t suppose you could help. Well, I mean, you could, if I could understand you.”  
Vinestorm moved closer and stood next to him. She got into a little stance, and her vines extended out. She looked back at him. “Saur, Saur.”  
Somehow, though he couldn’t say how, he seemed to understand what Vinestorm was trying to tell him. He got into the same stance and concentrated again. He felt the vine buds inside his bulb start to move, and soon they stretched out. They felt like a second pair of arms, or something similar. He reached over with them and grabbed the rock.  
“Yeah! I did it!”  
Rosa looked over again. “Already? That was fast.”  
He stretched out a vine and snuck it into her pack. He quickly pulled it out, taking a berry with it.  
“Hey!”  
“Just practicing!”  
She walked over and grabbed the berry back. “Well, don’t practice on my stuff!”  
Emily cleared her throat. “Uh, guys? There’s a weird Pokémon coming towards us.”  
Both of them turned to look. They saw a purple ball-shape floating through the air towards them. It had small vents all over its body, and a dopey-looking face on the front. Underneath the face was a marking that looked like a cartoon skull.  
“It’s a Koffing,” Darren said. “I’ve seen them around before, in Johto. But what’s it doing here? I didn’t know there were any around Route Two…”  
The Koffing hovered into their little camp. It looked around for a moment before a small smile crossed its face, and jets of pitch-black smoke spewed out from its vents.  
“Hey! What the--” Emily’s cry was cut off as she started coughing from the smoke.  
The smoke soon filled the air, and everyone’s visibility dropped to almost nothing. Darren stumbled around in the smoke, trying to find his way out. “Rosa? Emily?” He called out. “Ashes? Vinestorm? Bubbles? SOMEONE?”  
He heard footsteps running his way, and turned towards the sound. He barely had time to see two pairs of black boots before something scooped him up and started carrying him away.  
“Guys?”  
His eyes were still stinging from the smoke, and he closed them to try and keep it out. A moment later, the smoke cleared from his nostrils and he opened his eyes again to see that he was in a net.  
“See, Morgan? Told you it could talk.”  
He looked at the person who had spoken and his blood ran cold as he saw the black uniform with a red letter “R” on it. He knew that uniform; he knew it far too well.  
_Team Rocket?! But that’s… how are they still around?_ Anger stirred in his heart as he remembered everything they’d done in Johto.  
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let’s just get it out of here, before it gets any bright ideas.”  
“Morgan, it’s a Pokémon. Without its Trainer, what’s it gonna do?”  
“I don’t know! It’s got those vine thingies, doesn’t it?” He adjusted the net between them.  
His words gave Darren an idea, and he concentrated, trying to extend the vines. For a moment, nothing happened, but then, slowly, they pushed their way out. He moved them through the holes in the net and snaked them down towards the grunts’ feet. With a quick motion, he wrapped the vines around their legs.  
They went down. Hard.  
The net (and Darren) went flying, soaring through the air until it skidded to a stop along the ground. Darren wiggled around until he got free of the net, and then turned to face the grunts.  
They picked themselves off the ground and glared at him. He gave them a glare right back.  
The girl grunt punched her partner in the arm. “‘It’s got those vine thingies’, huh? Way to give it ideas, moron!”  
“You said it was just a Pokémon! ‘Without its Trainer, what’s it gonna do?’”  
“Aggggh, you’re such an idiot!” The girl grabbed a Pokéball from her belt and tossed it forward. It opened in a flash of light and a snakelike Pokémon came out.  
“Go, Ekans! Bite attack!”  
The snake Pokémon slithered forward, its mouth gaping open. Darren jumped quickly to the side and extended his vines. He sent them forward to try and wrap around the snake, but it squirmed out of his grip.  
“Bite again!”  
Ekans came at him again. This time he was a hair too slow, and the fangs bit into his side. He flinched with pain, his body refusing to move for a second.  
“Good job, Ekans. Now--”  
Something slammed into the girl’s back and she hit the dirt. The guy grunt turned around only to fall as twin vines wrapped around his legs.  
The Ekans looked back at its Trainer and Darren saw his chance. Before the snake could react, he smashed his head into its body. The Ekans went down.  
“DARREN!”  
A pair of arms picked him up off the ground and squeezed him tightly. The hug pushed the air out of his lungs and he had to take a deep breath. “Emily, you’re squishing me!”  
“Oh my gosh, I’m sorry!” She relaxed the hug and he took another breath. “I was just so worried about you.”  
Rosa knelt next to the two grunts and tied their hands together with some rope from her pack. “Who are these yahoos anyway?”  
“They’re Team Rocket,” Darren replied. “A bunch of thugs with dreams of world domination. I thought they’d disbanded, though.”  
The girl grunt’s head shot up. “Disbanded? What kind of fantasy-land have you been living in? We’re doing fine; in fact, recruitment’s been up lately!”  
Rosa kicked them lightly with her foot. “Yeah, well, recruit quality hasn’t gone up.”  
“We should probably call the police,” Darren said.  
“I already did,” Emily said. She held up her phone.  
“Oh. Well then. I guess we just have to wait for them to show up. Keep an eye on these two and make sure they don’t try anything stupid.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
The officers put the two grunts in the patrol car and closed the doors. The head officer turned back to Rosa. “Thanks for calling us so quickly. We’ve been having a lot of problems with Team Rocket lately, and it seems like we’re always too late.”  
“No problem. They’re a bunch of jerks.”  
“I’m just wondering why they’d try and take a Bulbasaur. They’re not _that rare_.” She scratched her head. “I mean, you have two of them, and you’re just kids. How rare can they be?”  
Rosa smiled, trying to hide her nervousness. “I don’t know either. Maybe they’re just dumb? They didn’t seem that smart.”  
The officer laughed. “No they didn’t. Well, whatever they wanted, it doesn’t matter now. They won’t be seeing the outside of a cell for a good long while.” She thanked them once more and hopped into the driver’s seat of the car. The car drove off and headed back towards Viridian City.  
Rosa breathed a sigh of relief. “Well. That was definitely an adventure.”  
“Tell me about it,” Darren muttered.  
They went back to their little campsite and set everything back up.  
“So, uh…” Rosa tried to search for the right words. “Who’s going to cook dinner later?”  
“Good question…”  
Darren sighed. “I can teach you how. I’m obviously not going to be cooking things for a while.” Under his breath, he muttered, “If ever…”  
“Don’t worry, Darren! I’m sure it’ll wear off soon!” Emily gave him a hug.  
“Thanks, Emily. I hope you’re right.” He tried not to think about what would happen if it didn’t. It wasn’t as bad as he’d first thought; being a Bulbasaur had its upsides, like the vines. But being stuck like this forever… no, he really didn’t want to find out what that was like. Now more than ever, he just wanted to go back to normal. _Please, whatever’s out there, please just let me go back._  
As he thought that, he felt strange, like his insides were moving around. He closed his eyes as a wave of dizziness washed over him, and he dimly heard Emily cry out in surprise. She let go of him and he fell to the ground. The dizziness soon passed, and he opened his eyes to find himself lying flat on the grass.  
“Ooooooohhh, that felt weird…”  
Rosa kind of squeaked. “Uh, Darren?”  
“What?” He looked up to see her staring at him in shock. He looked back to himself. “Wait… I have hands again!” He examined himself all over; he was back to a normal ordinary human again. Somehow, his clothes had even reappeared. He let out a whoop and wrapped Emily into a hug. He went over to Rosa and did the same.  
She returned the hug. “This was a weird day. But… it was kinda fun.”  
“Yeah. Let’s just hope for a weird-free adventure from now on. Now, I better get started on dinner, since I have hands again.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Kasey sat in her prison cell, arms and legs crossed. She couldn’t believe they’d lost to a bunch of kids. The plan had been genius; how had they failed? _Probably that idiot Morgan’s fault. And where is he, anyway? I haven’t seen him since they took us into the station_. She hoped he wasn’t squealing.  
The door to the cell block opened and an officer came in. “Dinner,” he said, and slid a tray through the door slot. Kasey grabbed the tray and wolfed down the meal. It wasn’t terrible, thank goodness; she’d had way worse. In fact, it was better than the food at TR HQ…  
She was about to put the tray down when she felt something small and hard underneath it. Curious, she flipped the tray over, and saw a video communicator taped to the back. A light was blinking on it, and she pushed the OK button.  
The screen turned on and she saw a figure in shadow sitting behind a desk. “Ah, agent Kasey. Good to see you.”  
She sat up straight. “Boss! Um, Agent Kasey, reporting for duty.”  
The figure waved a hand. “That’s enough. Now, please give me your report on what led to your incarceration.”  
She spilled the whole story, not leaving out a single detail.  
“-- and then we got tied up and they called the cops on us. And we wound up here.”  
“Interesting. I agree that a talking Pokémon is definitely very rare. Unfortunate that it ended up getting away. And you said that both you and agent Morgan were captured?”  
“Yes.” She gritted her teeth. She wanted to rant about his idiocy, but she knew she had to remain calm and respectful in front of the Boss.  
“That’s very interesting. Considering that he’s right here.” Another figure moved into view and she saw her partner’s face.  
“What the--? How’d you get out?”  
“Get out? What are you talking about? I got knocked out by something in the forest, and when I woke up, I was all tied up! I got out of it and went back to HQ.”  
“But…” That made no sense at all! He’d been there with her the whole way. “Then who got captured with me?”  
“I don’t know,” the Boss replied. “But from the sound of things, according to our inside man, he’s not there anymore. He seems to have vanished into thin air.”  
“Vanished?”  
“Yes. Just gone.”  
This was getting weirder and weirder by the minute. She shook her head. “Alright, I guess it doesn’t matter too much. So, Boss, are you going to get me out of here?”  
The figure was silent.  
“Boss?”  
“I’m very sorry, Kasey. But getting you out would require a lot of pulling, which could attract attention of the kind we cannot afford. For the good of the team, it’s best if you remain where you are.”  
“But--”  
“I’m sorry. Goodbye.” The screen went black.  
She stared at the screen in shock for a moment. Then she flung the communicator at the wall, where it shattered into tiny pieces. She curled up on the cot in her cell, her thoughts furious. _I thought we were supposed to take care of our own! How could he just leave me like this?!_  
She fell asleep, slipping into dreams full of anger and revenge.


	2. Viridian Travels

Emily gazed around Viridian Forest in astonishment. “This place is HUUUUUUUUGE!”  
Her shout echoed through the woods, startling several Pokémon.  
“Hey, could you keep it down a bit?” Rosa asked.  
“Huh? Why?”  
“Just… I don’t want to wake anything up, ok? There’s probably something in here that would get really angry.” Rosa shivered a bit.  
“Oh. Sorry.” Emily looked around a bit more. “Hey, have you seen Darren anywhere?”  
She shrugged. “He went out to collect some berries or something. I don’t know exactly where he went.”  
A noise caught their attention, and they listened closely. It sounded kind of familiar, but they couldn’t quite place it.  
“Should we check it out?” Emily asked.  
“Ehhhhhh…” Rosa seemed a bit nervous. “Maybe? I don’t know…”  
“Well, I’m going to.” She headed off towards the source of the noise. It got louder and louder, and more familiar. It wasn’t a Pokémon cry, that’s for sure. It was a weird kind of rumbling sound…  
She stepped around a bush and almost stepped right on the source.  
“Oh. HEY ROSA, I FOUND HIM!”  
She looked back at her feet to where Darren was laid out on the grass, fast asleep. Now she knew what the noise was and she couldn’t believe she hadn’t realized it earlier.  
Darren was snoring.  
Rosa came through the trees, Vinestorm following close behind. She skidded to a stop as she saw Darren on the ground. “He fell asleep?!”  
“Yeah, looks like it. Should we wake him up?”  
“As much as I’d like to let him finish his nap, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t want to be separated.” She looked around the forest and shivered again.  
Emily raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Instead, she shook Darren’s shoulder lightly.  
He didn’t stir.  
Emily shook again, harder this time. “Come on, Darren, time to get up.”  
He just turned over and continued snoring.  
She sighed, and looked over at Bubbles. “Bubbles, Water Gun.”  
The Squirtle nodded and shot a jet of water straight into Darren’s face.  
He started flailing about, trying to get out of the stream. He rolled to one side and right into a bush.  
Emily started laughing, and even Rosa giggled a little.  
Darren disentangled himself from the bush and gave them both a glare. “And that was for?”  
“Wandering off and falling asleep,” Rosa replied. “This place is a maze; we should be sticking together.”  
He brushed the leaves off and stood up. “I didn’t go _that_ far. I was just grabbing some more berries. And I grabbed something else while I was at it.”  
“Something else? What do you mean?”  
In answer, he whistled, and a moment later, they heard a rustling in the bushes. Ashes stepped out, his little arms full of berries, and was followed by another Pokémon. They were a small bug Pokémon that resembled a green caterpillar. They also carried some berries, though much fewer than Ashes.  
“Awwww!” Emily cried. “They’re so cute!”  
Rosa pulled out her Pokédex and pointed it at the new Pokémon. Data soon flashed on the screen. “Oh, they’re a Caterpie.”  
“Yep. Found her while I was berry hunting. She took a liking to me, so I decided to take her along.” He bent down and held out his arm.  
The Caterpie crawled up his arm and onto his shoulder. She nuzzled his cheek and offered him the berries.  
“Awww, thanks, Butters.” He took the berries.  
“We should probably find a place to camp for lunch,” Emily said. “There should be a clearing around here somewhere…”  
“I saw one just a little ways back,” Rosa replied. “I can show you where.”  
“Lead on. I got more than enough berries.”  
They walked on until they found the clearing Rosa had seen, and set up camp.  
As Darren started cooking, Emily looked over at Rosa. She was glancing all around, nervously.  
“Rosa, are you okay?”  
She jumped. “Huh? Oh, yeah, fine!”  
“Then why do you keep looking around?”  
“Uh… no reason. I’m just… keeping an eye out.”  
“For what?” Emily was getting confused.  
“You know… things!”  
Emily still had no idea what she was talking about. “Rosa are you sure you’re alright? You’ve been kinda jumpy ever since we came in here.”  
“No, I haven’t! I’m not jumpy at all!”  
Even Vinestorm looked at her skeptically for that one.  
“Ok, fine, yeah. I don’t like this place.”  
Darren looked up from the pot. “What? Why not?”  
She pulled her arms in closer. “I don’t know, I just don’t. Everything’s so close together, there’s not that much light, even though it’s daytime. And we don’t even know what’s in here.”  
“A bunch of bug Pokémon, maybe a Pidgey or two. At least, that’s what the Pokédex says,” Darren replied.  
“Yeah, well… the Pokédex doesn’t know everything,” she shot back. “I just feel like there’s something here, watching us.” She went quiet.  
The silence that followed her words was almost palpable. The hairs on the back of Emily’s neck started standing on end. Even the Pokémon were quiet.  
_FWEEEEEEEEE_  
The whistle of steam from the pot caused them all to jump. Rosa fell backwards off the log she sat on.  
Darren laughed nervously and took the lid off the pot. “I think you’re winding yourself up over nothing, but that’s just my opinion.”  
“Maybe you’re right,” she said hesitantly. She still looked nervous, and that nervousness was starting to infect Emily. She tried to calm herself down, telling herself that there wasn’t anything out there. After all, if there was, wouldn’t the police or Pokémon Rangers take care of it? Or post warnings if they couldn’t? _We didn’t see any warnings, so it must be pretty safe, right?_  
Somehow, that didn’t do anything to calm her nerves, and she kept sneaking glances over her shoulder as she ate, trying to see if anything was there. By the time lunch was finished, all she had to show was a sore neck from looking back and forth.  
Either there was nothing there… or it was very well-hidden.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
“Hmmmm… I think it’s this way.”  
Darren pointed down a path in the forest that headed deeper in.  
Rosa gulped a little but nodded. “If you say so. You’re the best with directions.”  
“Well, thanks, but I’m just reading the map.” He stowed the map back in his pack and motioned for the others to go first. They did and he headed up the rear, Ashes and Butters following behind him.  
They walked on in silence, Darren looking around the forest. It was kind of surreal; not much light came down through the trees, so it was like perpetual twilight. It was really beautiful, in a way.  
Ashes started walking closer to him, his tail held out in front to provide some light. Darren smiled. “Way to think ahead, buddy. Good job.” {Thanks!} “You’re wel--” Darren stopped and looked at the Charmander. “Did… did you just say something?”  
{I said thanks.}  
Darren reeled back, causing Rosa and Emily to look back at him.  
“Darren, are you okay?”  
“Did you guys hear that too?” He asked.  
“Hear what?” Emily raised an eyebrow.  
He looked back at Ashes. “Say something again.” {Like what?} He gestured at the Charmander. “That! Did you hear that, he spoke!”  
“Uhhhhhhhhh… no, he didn’t. Did you hit your head or something?”  
“No, and I’m not making this up, I swear!”  
Emily moved over and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Calm down, Darren. What did you hear?”  
“Well, I told him ‘good job’, and then he said ‘thanks’. And just now, he said ‘like what’, when I asked him to say something.”  
Emily glanced over at Rosa, who shrugged. “Hmmmm…” She bent down and kneeled in front of Ashes. “Ashes, can you say something for me?”  
{Why do you keep asking me to do that?} It was so weird; Darren saw Ashes’s mouth moving, and heard the words coming out. But from the way everyone else looked at him, they only heard the usual.  
“Guys, I swear I’m hearing him talk.”  
“Uh huh.” Rosa didn’t quite look convinced. “Is it just him, or do you hear the other Pokémon too?”  
Darren looked over at Vinestorm and Bubbles. “Well?”  
{I don't know, do you hear us?} Bubbles said.  
{That would be kinda nice,} Vinestorm added.  
“Yep. I’m hearing all of them.” He sat down in the dirt of the path. “What the heck is going on?”  
“I don’t know, but… it looks like you can understand Pokémon now.”  
“I guess so… so much for a weird-free adventure, huh?” He sighed. “That teleporter thing just keeps coming back to bite me.”  
“I mean, you did get taken apart and put back together again. Bound to have something screwy happen,” Rosa said. “But hey, at least this time, it’s useful.”  
“True.” He scratched Ashes’s head. “Better than getting stuck as a Bulbasaur. Uh, no offense, Vinestorm.” {It's fine} Rosa held out her hand and he took it. “We good now?” she asked.  
“Yeah. Let’s keep going…” He trailed off as he looked around. “Hey, where’s Butters?”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Butters inched her way up the tree trunk, her eyes fixed on a massive berry. She was almost there; she could practically taste it already. But this one wasn’t for her, it was for Darren. He was really nice; he’d found her in the bush where she’d fallen from a tree, and helped her back on her many feet. So, she’d followed him, and he decided to take her with him.  
Finally, she reached the berry and grabbed it with her front two feet. It came off the branch pretty easily. She started back down the branch, when she heard a rustling above her. She didn’t look to see what it was; she crawled as fast as she could down to the ground. Her feet just touched the forest floor when something whooshed past her. It barely avoided crashing into the ground, instead swooping away.  
She kept going, trying to find somewhere to hide. Whatever it was, it was definitely after either her or her berry. And she didn’t want it to have either.  
She almost made it to a bush when a gust of wind hit her from behind. She went tumbling, the berry flying out of her grasp. Struggling to get back up, she saw something move over to the berry, and she got a good look at her assailant.  
The Pidgey glanced at her with almost casual disdain. Then, without breaking eye contact, they lowered their beak and swallowed the berry in one gulp. {Hey!} The Pidgey turned their head away and started strutting off.  
Butters lifted herself up. {That was for my friend!} she cried, and let loose a stream of sticky silk threads.  
The threads wrapped around the Pidgey, who squawked in surprise, and flapped around wildly trying to break free.  
More rustling from the nearby bushes, and this time, Butters couldn’t help looking. This one sounded big, and she braced herself to launch some more silk. The sound came closer, and closer…  
The bushes parted to reveal a familiar pair of brightly colored feet, which skidded to a stop. “Butters?”  
{Darren!} She threw herself at his legs and latched on.  
“Whoa! Hey, now, it’s ok.” He reached down and picked her up to put on his shoulder.  
There was a snapping sound, and they both turned to see the Pidgey breaking loose from their bonds. They looked angry now, their eyes fixed on Butters.  
Darren put a protective hand over her. “Hey, you, get back.”  
They didn’t seem to hear him, or they just didn’t care. They flew up at him and pecked at his shoulder. He twisted to the side, but lost his balance and crashed to the ground.  
Butters managed to land in a bush, and wormed her way out towards Darren. Another gust of wind barely missed her as the Pidgey got in between her and Darren. They aimed another peck at her, which she frantically dodged. She kept trying to move around them, but they were just too fast, moving in front of her at every opportunity.  
The Pidgey struck again, and just barely missed. In a panic, Butters shot more string at them as they went by, tangling them up again. She looked over to see Darren getting back up, and crawled over to him.  
“Good job, Butters!” He glanced at the Pidgey, who was still struggling. “Now, did you want to teach them a lesson?”  
She looked back and forth between the Pidgey and Darren, and nodded.  
“Alright, then! Go for a Tackle attack!”  
She went forward as fast as she could at the struggling Pokémon. When she got close enough, she leaped into the air and rammed straight into their side. They cried out, thrashing around even harder to try and escape.  
“Again! You got this!”  
She backed up and rammed forward again. This time, the Pidgey broke free and took to the air. They flew back into the forest, not even looking back.  
Darren scooped her up and held her high in the air. “You did it! I’m so proud of you!”  
Butters wriggled around in happiness. Darren was proud of her, and she’d beat that Pidgey all by herself! This was the best day ever!  
She was so happy that she almost didn’t notice the bright light shining from her until she saw Darren shielding his eyes. The light grew until it blinded even her, and she felt her body shift around and reshape itself. Her excitement grew; she was evolving!  
The light faded, and she looked herself over. As much as she could, anyway; her feet had disappeared, pulling into a hard, green carapace. She could rock herself back and forth, and maybe hop a little, but not much more.  
{Darren! Look!} She turned her eyes to face him, wanting to see how proud he was.  
He was staring at her, a weird expression on his face. As she watched, his face started to turn green.  
“Uh oh.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
“He’s been gone awhile. I hope he hasn’t run into trouble.”  
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Rosa answered. She was busy keeping an eye out. That feeling of being watched hadn’t diminished at all; if anything, it was worse. Maybe she was imagining things, but she didn’t think so. And even if she was, there wasn’t any harm in being careful, was there?  
Despite her statement, she was starting to worry about Darren. She hadn’t wanted to separate, but he’d gone running off to try and find Butters before she could say anything. She had managed to keep Emily from following him, barely. It was better that they wait for him on the path, rather than going in blind and getting lost themselves.  
Another few moments passed, and then they heard the bushes moving. Rosa twitched and turned to face the noise. Vinestorm extended her vines and shifted into a combat stance.  
“Who’s there?” Emily called.  
“Char!”  
Rosa relaxed and moved over to the bushes, holding them open. Ashes moved through the opening, dragging a large pack behind him. She recognized the pack as Darren’s, though he was nowhere to be seen. Attached to the back of the pack were two Pokémon. They were forest green in color, without arms or legs, and looked like crescent-shaped shells.  
“Hey, Ashes, where’s Darren? Or Butters?”  
In answer, the Charmander pointed to the two Pokémon. Confused, Rosa looked closer, and saw that one of them had Darren’s goggles tied around them. A sneaking suspicion hit her, and she examined their “face”, or what passed for it, anyways. Right under the eye was a familiar scar.  
“Oh, you’ve GOT to be kidding me! Again?!”  
Darren sighed. “Yep. Guess it wasn’t just a one-time thing.”  
“Oh dear,” Emily said. She picked up the other Pokémon (Rosa assumed she was Butters) and cradled her carefully.  
“Well, this is great. How are we going to find the way out now? You don’t even have hands to hold a map.”  
He glared at her. As much as he could, anyway; he couldn’t really turn around. “I can still read a map, Rosa. You just have to hold it open. Also, I’m fine, thanks for asking.”  
She flushed. “Sorry. That was rude…”  
"Yeah, it was."  
"I'm just… this forest has me on edge and I wanna get out as fast as possible. I don't know where we are, and you do. I guess I freaked out a little." She sat down on the ground and pulled him off the bag.  
"I get it. And yeah, the forest is kinda creepy. But I'm going to do my best to get us all out of here. After all, I did promise to keep an eye on you, didn't I?"  
She smiled a little. "I thought you said you weren't a babysitter."  
"Hey, just because I'm not watching your every move doesn't mean I can't keep you safe."  
"Yeah. You're right. Thanks, Darren." She hugged him gently, trying not to squish him.  
"No problem. Now, can you open up that map? I think it's time we got out of this place."  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
They continued down the trail, the trees starting to thin a little. Rosa breathed a sigh of relief. According to the map, they were almost out of this place; just a little bit further, and they could see the sun again.  
She looked down at Darren, who was still a green bug. The 'Dex identified him and Butters as Metapod, the evolution of Caterpie. She'd looked a little further and saw that Caterpie had one more evolution after Metapod, called Butterfree. Idly, she wondered whether Darren could evolve himself. That led her thoughts down a rabbit hole, and she didn't notice the new sound in the forest until it started to hurt her ears.  
It was a high-pitched whine that rose and fell, each rise causing her head to throb. She glanced over at the others and saw similar reactions. The Pokémon especially seemed to feel it; Ashes and Bubbles were clutching their heads, and Vinestorm had her front feet covering her ears. Even Darren and Butters were affected, though the only sign was them rocking back and forth with their eyes closed.  
"What's that noise?" Emily shouted. "It's so awful!"  
"I don't know!" Rosa called back.  
A new sound joined the whine, though it took a moment to be able to hear it. It was a harsh, droning sound, like the buzzing of many wings. Rosa liked it even less than the whine.  
"Darren, we gotta get out of here! Which way?"  
He cracked open his eyes. "Nnnn… forward. I think… it's hard to concentrate with this racket."  
"Got it." Rosa held him closer and started running forward. She picked up Vinestorm along the way, and kept going.  
Something large and yellow moved in front of her. She yelped and skidded to a stop. Several more yellow creatures joined the first one, and she got a good look at them. They were pretty big, for bug Pokémon; about two-thirds her height. They were yellow with black stripes across their abdomens, and they had large, sharp stingers at the end of their topmost arms. Their big red eyes glared in her direction as they buzzed closer, their wings making that droning sound she'd heard.  
"Darren! Do you know what these are?"  
He opened his eyes again. "Oh. Oh no…"  
"That doesn't sound good!" She stepped back slowly, her heart pounding in her chest.  
"They're Beedrill. Normally, they wouldn't be a problem as long as we stayed away from their nest, but…"  
"Something's got them riled up. It's probably that noise."  
"Uh, guys?!" Emily's voice reached them from behind. "We got a problem!"  
Rosa turned to see Emily backing up towards them. Several more Beedrill were in front of her, advancing menacingly. Rosa looked around and saw they were surrounded. There were at least a dozen of them, probably more, all moving towards the group with their stingers outstretched.  
"This is bad…" Several ideas flashed through Rosa's head on how to get out, but none of them seemed likely. There were just too many of them, even with their own Pokémon helping them. Desperately, she looked down at Darren. "You got any ideas?"  
"I don't think so… wait a sec." He looked at all the Beedrill, then over to Emily. "I think I've got something. But it's pretty out there."  
"ANYTHING. JUST DO IT."  
"Alright then. Butters! Do what I'm doing!" He looked back to Rosa. "Hold out your hand."  
She did so, putting Vinestorm down first.  
_SPLORT_  
A white glob of sticky white silk shot out from Darren and stuck to her hand.  
"Euuuugggghhhhh! What the--"  
"Just deal with it, it's part of the plan!" His body stiffened, becoming much harder. "Ok, now, swing me around."  
"What?! Are you crazy?!"  
"I TOLD YOU IT WAS OUT THERE! DO YOU WANNA GET OUT OF HERE OR NOT?!"  
"Fine!" She closed her hand on the silk, shuddering as she heard it squelch, and started swinging Darren around over her head. The silk lengthened, flowing from his body so that he went farther and farther out. Over her shoulder, she saw Emily doing the same thing with Butters. They went further until they smacked into the first Beedrill.  
It went down like a stone.  
_Holy crap, it actually worked?_ She kept swinging, hitting each Beedrill as it came forward. Several more went down, thinning the swarm out immensely. The remaining members moved back, and after a moment, flew back into the woods.  
Rosa slowed the swinging down until Darren came to a halt on the ground. She ran to him and looked him over. "You ok?"  
"Yeah… just a little dizzy. Did we do it?"  
"Oh yeah, we did it." She turned back to Emily, who was picking up Butters. "That was insane."  
"Hey, it worked, didn't it?"  
"Yeah. Yeah it did."  
Suddenly, Darren started shining with a bright light. Rosa covered her eyes, and felt him squirming around in her hand. The light eventually faded, and she looked to see an enormous butterfly Pokémon perched in her hand.  
_Well, I guess that answers that question. He CAN evolve…_  
Darren looked down at himself. "That felt _really_ weird. And that's saying something."  
"Butterfree, right?"  
"Mhm. At least I can move now. Having no arms or legs was kind of-- ACK!"  
His words were cut off as another Butterfree tackled him from the air, wrapping him in a hug and dragging them both down to the ground.  
“Freee, freee!”  
“Yes, I see! You’re amazing, you did a good job! But you’re kind of on top of me!”  
Emily ran over, along with the other Pokémon. “Is everyone okay?”  
“Mostly, yeah.” Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, Rosa’s knees were a bit shaky. She sat down on the ground to rest a moment.  
Vinestorm walked over and nuzzled her. She smiled, scratching the Bulbasaur behind the ears. “Hey, girl.”  
“Guys, that whining sound is still there.” Emily peered around. “I think it’s coming from over there.” She pointed to the left of the path.  
Darren managed to untangle himself from Butters. “You think we should check it out?”  
“Well, if we don’t, my head’s going to explode,” Rosa replied. “Besides, it might bring that bunch of Beedrill back.”  
“Good point. Let’s go see what’s making that racket. And hopefully get it to shut up.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Darren stared at the weird device. It didn’t look like much; just a large black box with speakers on the front. But the noise was definitely coming from it. It was almost deafening this close up, seeming to skip his ears entirely and drill straight into his brain.  
“Geez, this thing is loud.”  
“What kind of jerk put it here?” Emily asked. “It’s riling up everything in the forest. Why would you want to do that?”  
“I don’t know, but let’s take care of it.” Rosa glanced down at Vinestorm. “Vinestorm, Razor Leaf that thing!”  
She nodded and flung several incredibly sharp leaves towards the box. They sliced right through it, and in a shower of sparks, it fell apart. The noise instantly faded, and the pain in Darren’s head began to ease.  
“Ohhhhh, yes.” He breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Much better.”  
A splash of color on one of the pieces caught his eye, and he shuffled over to it. He bent down and moved the piece closer with his tiny hands.  
“Guys, come look at this.”  
They moved over, and he pointed out the red letter “R” inscribed on the piece.  
“Team Rocket? Again?”  
“But why?” Emily asked. “Why would they put this here and just leave it?”  
“Because they’re terrible people?” Darren said hotly. He felt an old anger come rising back. “They don’t care what they’re doing to Pokémon, or people. They just care about money and power. Anything else is irrelevant to them.”  
“You sound like you know them.”  
He turned his head. “Yeah, a little. I’ve dealt with them before, back in Johto. I thought, after that, they were gone for good, but I guess that was too much to hope for.”  
Rosa sat down next to him. “They’re a bunch of jerks, for sure.” She thought for a minute. “Hey, I’ve got an idea.”  
He looked up. “What?”  
“Why don’t we keep an eye out for them, on our journey? Maybe we can put some serious dents in them, make ‘em think twice about doing this kind of stuff.”  
“We’re three kids and four Pokémon. Do you really think we can take on a crime syndicate?” _I mean, I did, but…_  
“I think we have a shot, at least. And we’re just going to keep getting stronger along the way.”  
Vinestorm hopped up next to her. {Yeah! We’re gonna get really strong!}  
Darren looked over at Emily. “What do you think?”  
“Well…” She fidgeted a bit. “I would’ve said no earlier, but…” She glanced at the machine and her face hardened. “This is just messed up. I don’t want any more Pokémon or people hurt like this. I’m in.”  
Bubbles nodded. {Me too!}  
{And me!} Ashes chimed in.  
Butters nuzzled him. {I’ll go wherever you do.}  
Darren sighed, though he was secretly pleased. “I guess that settles it. We see that letter R, we kick it straight to kingdom come.” He held out his tiny hand.  
Everyone else put their hand forward to meet his. They held it there for a moment, then lifted them out again.  
“This is kinda cool actually,” Rosa said. “I feel like we’re secret agents or something.”  
Darren laughed. “Except we don’t get cool gadgets or anything.”  
“We have our Pokémon. Isn’t that cool enough?”  
“True enough.” He shook himself, causing glittery powder to fly from his wings. “Well, if we wanna stop Team Rocket, we better find our way out of this forest first. Rosa, can you show me the map?”  
She nodded and pulled the map out of her pocket. Together, they planned the route out of the forest, and walked back towards the path.  
Darren glanced back at the machine as they left. He had no idea why they would put it here, but Team Rocket never did anything without a purpose. Whatever that purpose was, though, it didn’t matter; they were going to regret this, and every sleazy thing they did.  
_When we’re through with them, there won’t even be a memory left of them. In ANY region._


End file.
